The very best from the world of smooth jazz and classic soul.

February 15, 2013

Greg Chambers - After Hours

With the 2007 CD ‘City Lights’, and his 2011self-titled
follow-up, sax-man Greg Chambers has been carving out his own niche in the
annals of contemporary jazz. Of course
Chambers is far from being
your regulation smooth jazz musician. With
a resume that includes a parallel project with his own jazz quartet plus work
with the Aspen Festival Orchestra he remains well equipped to ring the
changes. However, his latest release,
the seven-track EP ‘After Hours’
(that will hit the streets on March 26) puts him unequivocally back into smooth
jazz territory. Not only that, with
stellar input from Jonathan Fritzen, Paul Brown Darren Rahn, Roberto Vally and
Ross Bolton, ‘After Hours’ proves to
be something of a musical tour de force.

Take for
example Chambers’ own composition ‘In The
Pocket’ that features both Brown on guitar plus Brown’s old sparring
partner Roberto Vally on bass. It is
very much smooth jazz on the mellow side and when Brown stays around to mix the
jazz classic ‘Groovin’ High’ it affords
Chambers the opportunity to indulge his penchant for a straight ahead groove. Elsewhere Darren Rahn’s work at the mixing
desk makes the most of Greg’s edgy interpretation of the Michael Jackson
blockbuster ‘Human Nature’ and he
does much the same with one of Chambers’ own tunes, the romantically inclined ‘Your Place Or Mine’, that is right up
there with the best that ‘After Hours’
has to offer.

Later Brown
returns on guitar for another of my personal favorites, the seductively smoky ‘Chelsea’s Song’, and although the splendid
‘On The Move’ glides along with a
tasty streetwise swagger, it’s the wonderfully easy grooving title cut that
steals the show. With Fritzen on keys at
his hugely immaculate best this one is a gem.